This beautiful, wild canid is native to India and Southeast Asia.
They are unusual dogs that’s do not fit neatly into any of the canine sub families.
Being highly elusive and a skilled hunter, they are becoming rarer than tigers. An endangered canid.
A scarcity of field studies and inconsistent findings have led to a poor understanding of their ecology and conservation status.
Land is being lost to deforestation and the dholes are hunted by humans as they sometimes attack livestock on which was once their territory.
The dhole is also the target of human hatred because they do not kill their prey; they just eat it until the animal dies.
This is partly due to the fact they are quite small at just 12-18 kilograms, smaller than a dingo.
It is thought these dog-like hunters cannot instantly kill their prey because they have rather small jaws, so they are physically unable to suffocate, although they have razor sharp teeth.
Yet, they tackle large and dangerous prey like the deer, boar and wild bovines.
Highly intelligent pack animals, as well as highly social and sensitive animals they live in packs of up to twenty-five individuals.
Dholes work as a precise team during a chase.
Some branch off from others when required, using peculiar squeals and whistles to communicate; the leader is able to let some pack members to wait ahead in ambush.
The sounds they make does not seem to alert their prey when being stalked, nor when chased.
Their behaviour can be similar to domestic dogs as far as play, wagging tails and other body language goes.
Unlike wolves, dholes do not show aggression towards other pack members, they even allow the pups to feed first after each hunt, and each pack has an alpha male.
They are considered sympatric (living, occurring within the same geographical area) with other large predators, including tigers, leopards, wolves and bears.
Fatal interactions are rare because hunting and feeding is at different locations and times, which makes top predators able to coexist with one another.
Dholes live on average 10-12 years, although in captivity up to 16 years.
Sir David Attenborough has some amazing films of these, sadly, disappearing wild dogs.
By Pam Brandis
